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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Quinoa Salad with Shrimp, Cucumber, Mango, & Mint



Quinoa seems to be all the rage lately, and with good reason. It's a complete protein that also full of other nutrients including magnesium and iron. I'd had it once, on New Year's Eve, and loved it (Thanks Maggie!), yet, for some reason, I kept neglecting to buy some. I finally picked some up in the bulk foods section one day, and had some fun googling quinoa recipes. Of all the ones I looked at, I'm glad this is the one I settled on. For starters, it made a TON of food. I'm a leftover lover so I never complain about this! Furthermore, this dish was light and full of crazy flavors. I never would've thought to put all of these ingredients together, but they worked. If you make this, don't omit the mint or the hot sauce--in my opinion they're essential to the dish. In fact, I liked the hot sauce so much that when I ate it the 2nd day, I added a healthy dose of extra hot sauce.

Ryan was actually the one who made this for us, I just found the recipe :) While he liked it as well, he thought it needed more dressing. You be the judge, it's easy to add more if you love a heavily soaked salad. Me? I'll just take more hot sauce please!

Quinoa Salad with Shrimp, Cucumber, Mango, and Mint
recipe from Hedonia

Ingredients:
-2 cups quinoa
-4 cups chicken broth
-1 lb shrimp, shelled and veined
-1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
-1 mango
-1 small red onion
-1 jalapeño pepper
-bunch of mint
-juice of 3 limes
-tabasco sauce
-olive oil
-pinch of sugar
-salt & pepper

Directions:
1. Rinse the quinoa well and allow to drain.
2. Bring the broth to a boil and cook the shrimp until pink, just a few minutes.
(we just used pre-cooked shrimp and skipped this step)
3. With broth boiling, add the quinoa and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and
cook until liquid is absorbed (approximately 10 minutes). Remove from heat and transfer
to a large bowl to cool.
4. Dive the cucumber, mango, and shrimp into half inch pieces and add to a bowl. Remove the seeds
and ribs from the jalapeno and finely mince before adding it to the bowl. Finely mince the red onion
and add to the bowl.
5. Add the cooled quinoa and toss.
6. In a small container, combine lime juice, tabasco, salt, pepper, sugar, and olive oil (amounts
to your preference) and whisk to combine. Pour over the salad and mix.
7. Chop the mint and add to the salad. Refrigerate at least one hour, serving cold or at room temperature.